Guiding Light
by TrixAreForSquids
Summary: A Bechloe story sure to get deep in the feels during the last year at Barden University. Every mountain has its valley, and the lows make the highs so much better.
1. Chapter 1

_Someday they won't be here,_ a small voice in her head whispered. _Someday they'll be living their best lives, far away from you. They'll be so in love with their lives that they'll forget all about you. You'll just be a figure in a vague dream that they won't remember._

She put her hands over her ears, and laid her forehead on the formica desk in front of her. The dim bulb of the amp illuminated the defeated, slumping figure against the otherwise dark room. It was late, two a.m. probably, but time wasn't relevant in the midst of personal abyss.

It was so lonely. She felt so trapped. Beca Mitchell knew that soon her life would change, but she wasn't ready for it. Graduation was on the near horizon, and she wasn't ready to leave Barden University.

 _They'll chew you up and spit you out. You'll never be ready._

How was she supposed to go out into the real world? Was she just supposed to pretend that she was the best DJ the universe had ever seen, even though the only experience she had was the campus radio station and an unpaid internship? What the fuck had four years of overpriced, insanely expensive education taught her? English literature, philosophy, algebra, physics theorum. What had any of these mandatory courses done to tell her how to market herself to a record label, or how to collaborate with Calvin Harris, or how to adjust the frequencies between two songs to merge the bassline into an electric hit to get a crowd jumping?

 _That's right. Nothing._

And there was so much that she wasn't ready to give up besides that. For one, she loved college life. Sure, finals sucked when they came around and cafeteria food got pretty bland after a month, but it was a comfortable type of routine. There were many aspects of her life, but how could you beat Wine Wednesdays and karaoke parties with your best friends? She knew that her life would never be this simple in the real world, and that the people she was sharing her college experience with were about to disappear as well.

For years, the Barden Bellas had been her support, her life, her… family. Beca hated to admit it to herself, but there was scarcely a time that she could picture what her life had ever been like before the Bellas. They were a rambunctious group. Diverse, loud, and without bounds. But each individual girl was like a sister to her. The sisters that she never had. There was a love and an understanding that the group shared, and it wasn't anything Beca had ever been exposed to pre-college. Her family was broken, beyond dysfunctional since it was fragmented between New York and Georgia, with parents who tugged their only child between them like a braided rope that was frayed from years of fighting.

But the Bellas made her forget about all that. After their first win at nationals, it was as if she was finally able to forget the life that she had, the person who she was before. When the house lights were finally turned down and the Bellas exited the stage and the audience scattered, there was a freshness to the way she felt. A renewed hope for life. She could change who she was: exchange the bad parts within herself for good ones. It was one of those rare defining moments that alters life permanently into a "before" and an "after," and Beca knew that she could never be the same again. Who knew acapella covers could inspire life-changing decisions?

The Bellas supported all of it. It was a weird transition for her at first because the positive behavior garnered attention. Ill-tempered Beca was gone due to a day-in and day-out effort to be more receptive to those around her. Sure, Aubrey would chide her when she tried to awkwardly express her feelings before discovering a happy medium. Of course Fat Amy would jokingly question where the emo midget had gone, and why she had been replaced with a slightly nicer troll. Even Lilly chipped in once, saying something about how Beca reminded her of a cousin that had also gone through a drastic personality change but it turned out that it was to hide his werewolf secret.

And then there was Chloe, who was a whole different kind of support. Chloe Beale was the glue that held Beca together more than any of the other Bellas. In doubt, in stress, in defeat, Chloe was there. She was perhaps the biggest contributor to Beca's emotional growth. And the friendship they shared was wonderful. She couldn't bear to think of a world where she wouldn't see the beautiful redhead every day.

 _That day is coming fast._

The ugly voice in her head was right this time. After graduation, who knows where they would be? Beca couldn't imagine getting a career and remaining friends with Chloe all at the same time. It would be as if she lost a part of herself. Chloe was her best friend and the only reason she had come so far in life. Otherwise Beca would've dropped out from BU by now. Maybe she would be living in a cardboard box, had it not been for that amazing redhead who interrupted her shower those four years ago.

 _Maybe this is all just a dream. A wonderful, terrible dream. Perhaps you've been asleep this whole damn time, and when you wake up, you'll no longer have friends, or acapella, or classes to go to, or even this damn room to live in._

With this caustic thought, Beca whipped her head up, blinking her eyes several times. She turned to double-check that the room was still the same around her, eyes adjusting to the lack of strong light. Yupp, same band posters. Her mixing boards were there on the adjacent table. Fat Amy was still mouth-breathing in the middle of peaceful sleep.

Beca was stranded on agony island and the only other person in the space was completely oblivious to her inner strife. The two roommates were practically sisters, but the brunette still wasn't the type to burden others with her problems. Beca may not be the quiet, shy girl she once was, but that didn't mean she was open about her secrets.

Keeping her worries about post-grad life on the down-low is what brought her to her current misery. A sore butt from sitting on a wooden chair for "X" amount of hours as her mixes were yet again trash. Her brain talking over itself in hysterics. She had gotten nowhere after trying to produce something of worth that could be used as a demo to her hardass boss, and of course no schoolwork had been completed either. The small girl felt near to pulling her hair out and needed to leave the room.

 _You can run, but you can't hide._

Throwing on an old flannel and some even older Vans, Beca headed downstairs to sit on the back porch of the large shared house. Some fresh air could clear her thoughts, get her mind off of the imminent loss of friends and current life. She crept down the stairs and down the hallway, avoiding the creaky boards that would wake up her housemates. Reaching the kitchen, she froze when she saw a form sitting at one of the barstools at the kitchen counter.

In the moonlight that came through the window, Beca immediately recognized the figure to be Chloe.

"Hey creep. What are you doing awake?" Chloe asked.

"I… Didn't expect anyone else to be up. I was just going outside is all."

"Let me join you."

 **Gettin' deep in the feels is better when you have someone to share them with. Stay tuned.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Special thanks to malexfaith for being my most faithful reader, your encouragement is duly noted. I love reviews please tell me what you guys think. xo.**

Beca allowed herself to be led into the stillness of the outside world by hand. The night was quiet, and the crackling of the spackle from the seldom-used back door fired into the air like a twenty one gun salute. It was April, but there was a leftover chill in the Georgian night. Besides the glare of the porch light, the moon revealed a world bathed in midnight blue.

The brunette would have been fine sitting on the porch to absorb the scenery, but Chloe surged forward across the backyard to the fence. They passed through the wooden gate that led through to the back alley connecting streets.

"Chlo where are we going? There could be a serial killer out here, it's nearly three a.m."

"Don't worry. This scene may figuratively scream 'serial killer in wait' but that'll be the only thing screaming tonight. We'll be fine!"

The brunette chuckled lightly in response, walking next to the older woman now that there was enough space.

"It's still the witching hour. Who knows what's out here," Beca feigned a shiver, but she knew deep down that she always felt the safest with Chloe by her side.

"So, what kept you awake on a night like tonight?" Chloe inquired softly.

 _Remember how gentle that voice sounds while you still can._

"I just couldn't sleep. Maybe I'm devising a way to take over the world, haha."

"Or maybe you just couldn't stand being separated from me, your one true love, for another second! You probably left your room to come ravage me in the night!"

"Oh really? Then why did I go to the kitchen then, hmm?"

"Well, ravaging someone as ravishing as myself would require some pre-game hydration. You just stopped in the kitchen for a glass of milk to fuel up. But I foiled your plan."

"Whatever, you weirdo," she pushed her playfully. They crept along the potholed path, now on the perimeter of campus.

"Really, though. Why were you awake tonight, Becs?"

Should she really tell her?

 _Yeah. Go ahead. Tell her. Then she'll realize just how pitiful you really are, with nothing going for you. She'll figure out that this is the peak of your futureless life._

"I just couldn't sleep."

Chloe slowed their stroll to a stop. They were now in the middle of the quad, which was deserted. It was obvious that her friend was being evasive. But why? The younger girl had come so far with her emotional growth, why regress now and shut her out too? The older girl couldn't pretend that this didn't hurt, the fact that her own best friend couldn't trust her enough to confide in her. Just as she was about to cautiously voice this opinion, Beca spoke.

"Isn't it funny how different it looks out here right now? In the daytime, this place is so full of life. There's people longboarding, playing music, sitting and talking in the sun. It's so fun, normally."

"Yeah, you're right." Chloe purposely kept her interjection short, sensing that Beca was thinking analogically but not wanting to interrupt the process.

"Right? And everyone looks so happy like 'boo-yah, we're in college, bitches' and everyone is having the time of their lives. The whole world seems to exist right here, joyously. It seems like there's nothing better than this. I walk through here sometimes and can't believe that I'm a part of it, how good my life is."

Chloe wordlessly squeezed her hand in acknowledgement.

"It just seems all too perfect. But now we're out here, and it's dark. And there's no one around. There's no music, there's no skateboards, there's no one walking by on their way to lunch. It's like the activities of the day never mattered. It's as though they never were. Like the people are ghosts and the sun never shone here, and I can barely recognize this place because of the stark contrast. And we're in the middle of it all, but there's nothing to be in the middle of."

"Hmm."

She continued. "Yeah. It's like, we're laying right here, and I can't help but wonder about all the people who have been on this very spot. Sitting, standing, walking through it, spitting on it, catching a Frisbee over it. What about the people who grew this grass, plowed it, made it into the quad in the first place. Who was here, and where are they now?"

Beca shook her head. "And I wonder if anyone ever laid here, in this very spot, in the middle of the night. But I know that if they ever did, they looked at the very same stars that we're looking at this very second, and they were thinking the very same thoughts that I am right now."

"Wow, Beca. That was beautiful."

"What?"

Chloe squeezed her hand again. "That was really deep. I didn't know that you thought like that."

Beca blushed. "Well- I don't know. Whatever. It was just a thought."

"No, don't be embarrassed. You should express things like that more often. That was wonderful. People love to hear things like that, it's what keeps people inspired."

"You think so?"

Chloe propped herself up on one elbow to face her friend. "I know so. I want you to take a mental snapshot of this moment, how this night feels. The grass on your back with dew that inevitably has soaked through your clothes right now, the shadows of the buildings that surround us, the silence of our campus at this hour. Remember me next to you, and the sky that is littered with billions of tiny lights that is watching over both of us."

Beca didn't have to ask why. She knew in that moment that Chloe was just as scared as she was about graduation and the unpredictable future, daunting in its enormity before them. It's what had kept them both awake that night, and they had turned their isolated miseries into a shared positive memory together. There was no one that she would rather share it with. They were powerless to stop time, but they could grasp onto these moments and wield them like moonbeams into the unknown.

 **Dark but sentimental. Next chapter suggestions? To be continued. xo**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys. Based on suggestion, I included some of Chloe's POV. I've deleted a ton of it though and this is what's left. It doesn't seem like people really like this story tbh (but thank you to malexfaith, unsuspectingties, surfingXgirl13, and guest for encouragement and keeping me going). I planned on making this a lengthy multichapter but if people don't have interest, then I might just go back to one-shots. Dunno, trying not to get discouraged I guess**

 **Chloe's POV**

It was past four a.m. when the girls rose, leaving their impressions in the damp grass. Beca left more than just an impression on the grass, however, as she had given Chloe a lot to think about. The older girl had keyed into Beca's unspecified problem due to her withdrawn nature over the past week, but after tonight's allegorical revelation it came as a surprise that Beca had the same worries as she did. She wished that she could say that everything would be okay beyond this temporary reprieve from stress, but this was definitely the best she felt in a long time. Her insides were warm, and her brain felt like it had a nice angora sweater wrapped around it, comforting and fluffy.

When the girls returned back to the Bellas' house, the stars were faded, being chased away by the waking blue horizon. Beca collapsed into her bed, exhausted from the insomnia and depth of her conversation with Chloe after bidding her a quick goodnight. What Chloe didn't know was the depth of her friend's so gratitude to her for making the acidic voice of doubt in her head temporarily disappear due to her release of emotion. The last thing Beca thought of before drifting into a sound sleep was the unfaltering blue gaze of Chloe Beale.

Down the hall, settled into her own bed with her own thoughts, Chloe reflected on their conversation. She was also terrified of the future: hell it's why she "failed" Russian Lit three times to stay at Barden. It was awful having to relearn the same history over and over again, but it had nailed home the saying "Друг познаётся в беде́." "A friend in need is a friend in need."

She could have saved $45,000 for her parents if she could have faced her fears of graduating and the big wide world beyond Barden. It was embarrassing being a third-time super-senior, but it was better than facing the embarrassment of failing a career. She didn't feel ready or prepared enough for real life, and was reminded of it every day that she still woke up in an on-campus house, every class that she had to report to, every homework assignment that she completed. People her age were going out and doing real things- saving lives, publishing themselves, working their way up corporate ladders. But for some reason, there was something about college life that she just couldn't let go yet.

After all was said and done, Barden was her second home, a world that she never wanted to leave due to its welcoming community and wonderful people. Professors, students, Bellas, she had love for them all. She couldn't imagine giving it up. She kicked herself for not being able to move on like the other people her age, but the world here was utopian-level perfection.

 _This place is so full of life,_ Beca's words reverberated through her mind. A tear slipped out of the corner of her eye, she didn't even try to stop it. She looked at Aubrey's sleeping form in the bed across the room, breathing evenly. Knowing that in two months, it wouldn't be like this. She'd be in an apartment somewhere, studying for med school; Aubrey in another city miles away studying for the Bar Exam now that she was almost completed with law school.

This made her think of a conversation that she had with Stacie a few days ago, wherein the other girl expressed that it seemed Chloe didn't have any worries. The leggy brunette used words like "carefree" and "perpetually happy" and "tireless" to describe her. But this was far from the truth.

They had just finished practice and we're gathering up their things when Stacie approached her.

"How do you do it all the time?"

Chloe looked up from her phone. "Hey, Stace. What do you mean?"

"I mean, finals are approaching, we have a new setlist to learn, and graduation is coming in quick. And you still manage to keep an infectious smile on your face, even though there is a shitload of things that we're up against. It's like you don't feel the heat, or something."

"What are you talking about, I have tons of things on my mind!"

"You seem pretty carefree to me-"

"That's just because showing your stress is just as infectious as a smile. I'd rather have the people around me feel inspired, supported, rather than on edge. That's the style of my leadership. I had a teacher once that said inner anxiety can be felt by those in close proximity to you, even if your words or body language don't show it. You can radiate intensity without saying a word. So if you push it away with a smile and a confident posture, no one will ever know."

Stacie stood up straighter at this, and arranged her chest for maximum sexual effect. "Yeah. I see. Although, sometimes it might be helpful to… radiate that intensity a bit," she winked, accompanying her innuendo.

Chloe was just born extraordinarily equipped to deal with pressure and this gave the impression that she had no worries. She had many high standards for herself as a perfectionist. Pressures of success, of honoring her family, of being a leader, dean's list scholar, co-captain, the list was endless. The redhead was practiced in the art of optimism and wide smiles, confident in her actions and work ethic, but her lifelong lofty ambitions and big-picture goals sometimes seemed impossible to make any progress on.

But when she was around Beca Mitchell, she didn't feel like her efforts were in vain. The stresses of the future disappeared. Chloe didn't know what it was about her, but she knew she was powerless to deny the attraction to her friend. Chloe had preferred girls over boys since her sophomore year of college, which most of her close friends and family knew. She had liked Beca since making her acquaintance, in a curious way that gained more momentum as their relationship deepened.

Unfortunately Beca was incredibly dense, and if she figured out Chloe's… crush, then she never brought it up and surely never acted on it. The older girl banked on the fact that the younger girl simply didn't pick up on it, though her hints were more than obvious. Instead of leaving a breadcrumb trail to her true feelings, Chloe was practically leaving whole loaves for Beca. Hand-holding. Late night texts punctuated with "xoxo." Coffee delivered to her dorm so that they could walk to acapella rehearsal together.

Chloe was desperately close to revealing her feelings tonight, her true thoughts for Beca. Time was running out. But in a shocking turn of events, Beca was the one to channel her estrogen into feelings. The redhead had gotten lost in the depth of her crush's musing and felt as if she would desecrate the good memory if she brought up her own silly feelings. But hearing Beca talk like that, it was so hard to restrain herself from kissing her, much less jumping her bones. It hurt to imagine a time where she couldn't see the girl every day. Another tear slipped from her eye.

It was funny how the brunette empowered her so often to be her best self, but she couldn't bring herself to take that extra step for fear of ruining their friendship. After all, Beca was probably as straight as a board. She had never expressed any interest in Chloe, choosing an off-and-on relationship with Jesse. For so long, Chloe had selflessly tried to look over her feelings for the best of their friendship. She was supposed to be support her friend, not pressure her. But on the other hand… Maybe her future would be as bright as everyone said it could be, if she had Beca by her side.

Lying in the middle of the quad tonight with Beca hearing her speak about the contrast between settings and subjects depending on the time confirmed one thing for her. Those extra three years had built up to tonight, this last stretch of time before the end of the school year- the end of her _final_ school year, this time.

These were the thoughts that kept Chloe Beale awake, her consciousness outlasting the light of the last star.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys. If the POV isn't specified, it's Beca's like normal. Double update, I wrote this one before Chapter 3 but I spent a lot of time and personal emotion into this one. Carry on.**

Grass, millions of baby emerald blades reaching with their mightiest to the sun. An acrylic plaid blanket spread out over that grass, interfering with the photosynthesis and warmed by the sun. Oh, how warm it was. Her skin absorbed the higher temperature like a puppy burrowing in a basket of toasty laundry.

Beca flopped back onto the blanket. She was wearing a white vee-neck that didn't make her skin look like a pasty Victorian doll, for once, and washed out blue jeans, rolled up to expose bare feet. She was in the middle of a laugh so endless that it would have had Adele rolling in the deep. Beca forgot what she was splitting her sides about, but it didn't matter. She turned onto her side, clutching her aching abs that were still racked with laughter and unfortunately for her lungs, a pair of lightly freckled hands shot out of nowhere to tickle the living daylights out of her. Beca laughed until she couldn't breathe, her face squinched up so hard that her own cheeks were in her line of sight until she saw stars from lack of oxygen that was being spared at the wild laughing fit.

Before she accidentally launched into cardiac arrest, the hands subsided with one last rib-grating like knuckles on a washboard. Catching her breath, Beca opened her eyes fully to see an angel. An angel in a spectacular turquoise and white sundress, one that complemented her sunkissed skin and visually annunciated the most gorgeous red hair she had ever laid eyes on. And speaking of eyes, her assessment only took a fraction of a second before connecting a gaze from radiant mountain spring irises. The light of the world shone in those eyes, like seven billion souls each offering a candle, so bright they rivaled the sun in the sky above this plaid blanketed oasis. Beca's breath was taken away once again, whisked out even though no one was joking or tickling anymore.

But this figure before her wasn't actually an angel... It was Chloe. How had she not realized Chloe was here earlier? Beca shut her eyes momentarily for clarity, still feeling the warmth from the sun on her skin, and when she moved the soles of her feet along the fabric of the blanket it was all was all still there. When she opened them, Chloe was still leaning over her, blocking out the sun now, the light illuminating her red curls to look like a fiery halo. The audio kicked in all of a sudden as she heard peals of laughter coming from the ginger, who had her head thrown back and her sparkling white teeth on display. Beca asked why she was laughing.

"Because you look disoriented!" She continued to belly laugh like she was on the set of Saturday Night Live in the studio audience.

Beca pushed her playfully, unfazed, craving that laugh to keep going, she would do anything.

"Who cares! We don't have a care in the whole world! Don't you dare try to make one!" Beca took her hand and pretended to bite the redhead's thumb.

"If you're hungry, don't eat me! There's so much food for us!"

Almost out of nowhere she pulled out an enormous wicker basket from behind her body. How had she not noticed that huge thing? It was at least double the width of her body. There was not enough time to mull over this detail, however, as Beca feasted her eyes before her mouth. The contents were insanely decadent, food exquisite enough for a king and enough to feed his whole kingdom. Roast beef sandwiches with all the fixings, croissants with artichoke dip, Caesar salad, crab cakes, French cheeses, strawberries with cream, assorted nuts, deviled eggs, pistachio muffins, and Dom Perignon to wash it all down.

They stuffed themselves to maximum capacity, and threw the scraps to the eager bluejays and squirrels nearby.

Beca had never in her life felt more complete than she did now. Lying back on the woven blanket, Chloe squeezed her hand. They lay with their eyes closed, seeing the rainbow patterns of warm-colored light dance under their eyelids. Beca could feel the smile on her own face, and with her eyes still closed, she gently brought her other hand up to touch Chloe's face, feeling for a smile. Sure enough, her warm lips were upturned, and Beca could also feel the deepening lines surrounding her mouth.

"Beca Mitchell what are you doing to me!" That laugh again, oh how gorgeous it was.

"I wanted to see if you were smiling," the brunette replied sheepishly.

"You've seen a million of my smiles, you wake up to them everyday!"

"Every day?" Beca opened her eyes, blinding herself.

"Yeah, silly. Every morning I wake up to your beautiful smile."

Chloe sat up after Beca paused for a moment without replying, because Beca was trying to figure out what she meant. Every day...does she mean most days? Some days they woke up in the same bed if they stayed over at each others' dorms, and saw each other early for practice. But why didn't that seem right? Beca probably had too much wine, damn that Dom Perignon, it was just too good to have only one glass. The urgency in her brain was dulled as her thought process was like the languid flow of honey into a jar. And if Chloe said it, is must be right. Chloe's always right, she always knows everything.

"You must be getting heatstroke! They taught me that delirium was one of the telltale signs of that back in nursing school!"

Back in nursing school… Chloe was a nursing major. Yeah. School. Again, dripping honeycomb thoughts, urgency losing its fight to steady itself.

"No I'm not! In fact, 'I got chills, and they're multiplying, and I'm lo-o-osin' control,'" Beca tapped out the beat on her friend's toned stomach.

"You're so silly today. But you're _my_ silly." Chloe wrapped her arms around Beca, nuzzling her neck for a moment before looking up at her face.

"I'm not silly. I'm a badass," she looked down at the other woman, unsuccessfully stifling a giggle.

"Oh really? Does Mrs. Badass need a reminder from Mrs. Tickle Monster?" Chloe swung one leg over the smaller girl's waist, straddling her. She leaned in closer, close enough for Beca to see the speckling of freckles bridging her nose and cheeks.

"That's _Ms_. Badass to you, thank you."

"No, it's _Mrs_. Badass and _Mrs_. Tickle Monster."

"You say that like we're married or something!" Although Beca supposed she wouldn't mind being married to an angel.

"Okay now I know _for sure_ that you have heat stroke! We better move you into the shade. But first, how many fingers am I holding up, my love?"

Three, Beca could see quite clearly. Encircling her third finger was a thin gold band, and it was turned a bit off-kilter so that one hell of a diamond caught the sun's rays and bounced them into her eyes.

The sharp beams caught her off-guard and her own hands flew up to cover her eyes. And on her own cheek she could feel a similar warm band of metal on her ring finger.

Chloe's hands gently removed Beca's hands from her face, studying her wife's darker blue orbs. Beca stared back, understanding the whole world in an instant. It was like her memory returned all of a sudden, similar to a power surge how it knocks out a line for a moment but when the lights come back on, they seem brighter in the night than they ever had before. _Remember me next to you...and the sky...watching over both of us._ The ghost of a memory crossed her brain, a dream of a dream. It was the eyes that she was looking into, the eyes that outshone the sun, the eyes that matched the sky as they were laying in the lush emerald field on the cozy plaid picnic blanket, that surrounded her vision until she was engulfed in them.

Abruptly, the world became dark. Nothing was available in her vision for a horrible moment. An instance of a bottomless pit, suspension in a black hole. And then… Band posters, a desk lamp, a ceiling? Where was she? Where was the plaid blanket, where she was sitting sank too much. A window, but wasn't she outside? How come the sky looked like it was just waking up? It should be descending after a strong noon glare over the rolling field. She needed to get back to Chloe so that she could fill her arms with the woman.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Come back, come back, come back to me. Please.

5:49 a.m. The clock was scowling its red numbers at her from the desk. But she had to get back to Chloe… She needed to.

 _Can't. She's gone._

How could it have just been a dream? It was so real, it had to have happened. There was no way that… How had her mind tricked her into falsely feeling physical things, seeing such vibrant colors and details, hearing so vividly Chloe's laugh too? Dreams were supposed to be barely three-dimensional, non-sensical, unrelatable. They were supposed to be gone when you got up, or recalled while you were brushing your teeth that morning, or told to your coworkers when you arrived at work for the morning. They were supposed to be about dinosaurs and cities made out of bacon and cats that sang show tunes. She felt like she had been robbed. Like she had finally found the lost city of El Dorado, and the government taxed it all away so that she could only keep a couple of pooled at the corners of her eyes at the unfairness of it all, spreading their salty diameters outward onto her pillow.

Maybe there was still hope, maybe she could pretend that she didn't notice that she woke up. Maybe her conscious brain could team up with its subconscious counterpart and they could take her back?

 _Nope. It's gone forever, Beca. Replay it while you can._

But it made sense, it was all just a dream that had never actually happened. No wonder she couldn't recall the beginning of how she got to the field, because the initial hazey world of a REM cycle, didn't allow a timeline to reveal itself in focus. She stewed in the feelings of being cheated. That's why Beca's bed had been so receptive to her body that was slumped with delicious, warm exhaustion after thinking about her heart-to-heart with Chloe a few nights ago. It was an exhaustion that her bones embraced, so much so that her mind followed with an Oscar-winning performance. She hugged herself in an attempt to comfort her body that was now aching with loneliness, craving the touch of Chloe again. The attempt was in vain though. Nothing was as warm as the older girl's touch.

The young DJ may have been asleep in the greatest slumber that she had been privileged with for years, but it wasn't for nothing. The vividness of her dreams that night were ones that she would remember for the rest of her entire life. The remarkable nature was due to the overwhelming joy she had felt, coaxed by the comfort of her companion the previous hour and her exhaustion. The dream may be gone, but she could make the bits that hadn't faded into ones that would surely last forever. She could share the feeling with the world, if she could channel her emotions just right into her music.

Throwing off the comforter, the damn cotton comforter that would never be the woven plaid blanket, she flipped open her Mac Book and hooked up her mixing boards and got to work.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey friends, thanks for the positive feedback from last time. I'm thankful for each and every one of you reading and following, favoriting, or reviewing. If you'd like to petition for Bechloe in PP3, here's where to go. Post it on your stories too! It's on iPetition at /petition/turn-bechloe-canon**

"Beca. Ms. Mitchell. Beca Mitchell!"

The girl jumped in her seat, visibly startled, whipping her head to identify the source of the voice trying to get her attention. Ah, Professor Reed. No wonder Beca had fallen off the "alert and engaged" wagon, she hated English class and hated Professor Reed even more. The class was beyond boring, but the instructor's condescending nature that made it that much worse.

 _You're doing it again, idiot._ The second thought ripped through her mind just as quickly as she realized that she hadn't been paying attention. This was the 'nth' time this week that she had caught herself thinking about Chloe. Her hair, her eyes, her soft voice, her… touch. She realized that her interactions with Chloe were the make-or-break factor in a good day or not. And after that dream she had last week about her… No. She needed to stop thinking like this.

"Hello? Are you even listening to me?"

"I- yes Professor?"

"Do you care to answer my question, or daydream in the registrar's office where you will wait for a V?"

See? Asshole.

"If you could kindly repeat the original question- which I'm sure was riveting- then I'll attempt to answer."

He paused, narrowing his eyes deciding between letting the kid have it or repeating the question.

"Fine, Ms. Mitchell. While you were away in daydream land, the class and I were having a discussion on the existential lives of mid-twentieth century migrant workers. Do you believe that they are the basis of the Great American Quest, and embraced their conquest with as much gusto as the pioneers who originally discovered the land did?"

She fought an eyeroll at his vocabulary, although the question intrigued her. She didn't know much about migrant workers beyond the Dustbowl and _Grapes of Wrath_ which she read in high school but didn't bother to reread for this class _,_ and she certainly hadn't read the paired text, but now sixty other students and an irritating professor were waiting for her thoughts.

"Well, it's…" man, 122 eyes all on her, and so quiet. Thanks, guys, for getting pin-drop quiet, even though this was an impossible feat during a test when she actually would have appreciated the peace.

"We're waiting."

"Yes. Um. Well the thing about your question is that you made it seem as if they were migrant workers because they wanted to be, or that they were shallowly trying to start a fad by moving West. This makes them seem unoriginal, because like you said, they were not the people who made the original discoveries of western plains. In fact, the people who 'originally' discovered the western plains were bastards, since they displaced the Native American peoples who had occupied the land for thousands of years before them. But you see, the migrant workers were not bastards, nor were they trying to make history. They were trying to make a living, not a killing, wage to wage, underpaid for their labor, and they just happened to assemble the idea of the Great American Quest by proxy."

Beca sat down. If the lecture hall had been pin-drop quiet before, it was an soundless, oxygen-less vacuum by now.

Beca Mitchell just schooled the professor, who knew the kid who only showed up once a week could deliver like that?

Professor Reed blinked repeatedly, his mouth opening and closing. The invisible smoke coming out of his ears could have been seething anger or the shocked gears of his head trying to grind out a coherent thought.

"Well said, Ms. Mitchell," is what he finally settled on. "Now imagine how good your grade could have been if you had participated like that all semester?" He clicked his tongue, _he literally tsk'ed_ t _sk'ed_ like a busy-bodied woman.

Now was the time for Beca to roll her eyes. Class was dismissed early, a rarity for Reed's English class. Perhaps he couldn't bring himself to "teach" anything for the rest of the day, for fear another student would become as...empowered as the tiny girl had.

Slipping on her sunglasses in anticipation for the Georgian sun and with her earphones already in, Beca was surprised when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

She turned and unplugged one bud in the process to see Jesse Swanson with a big grin on his face.

"Hey, Beca Mitchell, right? Well, of course I know you're Beca Mitchell, Professor Reed said your name like eighty times last period, and of course I was there for it all, and I've never missed a class so I'm there every period, and now's not the time to break my perfect attendance streak" he rambled. She looked rather uncomfortable.

"Anyway, I didn't get your attention just so I could clarify your identity and bore you with my attendance record. That back there? That was soooo dope of you," he bent his knees and looked up to the sky to emphasize his words. "I've never seen anyone stand up to that prick, but I thought that it was really cool you did."

"Yeah, well, someone had to."

"For real, you're a badass or something. Even though I only get to see you once a week here."

Beca chuckled. "You've been keeping tabs on my attendance?"

He blushed. "No… But you're easy to notice, you stand out from the rest, but in a unique way, not an 'everyone look at me' way. I totally just gained so much more respect for you. And using words like 'by proxy' too! That really nailed it home."

"I knew one day I'd impress someone with my $1.00 vocabulary bank," she let out a small laugh at her own pun.

"Badass and witty. I'm liking you more and more by the second."

Her turn to blush. He noticed.

"Well there was something else I wanted to ask you too. Since it's the end of the semester and all, and almost the end of our college experience, I was wondering if you'd want to go to the movies with me tonight? Or something? Maybe?"

Beca was caught totally off-guard. She cocked her head to try to figure out if he was joking or not. After all, the last boy to ask her out was Donnie Betts in middle school, and that only lasted two weeks and one horrible first kiss. If you could even call it that. So now, even eight years later it was odd to have a member of the opposite sex with a semblance of want for her.

And besides, this totally left-field opportunity, this goofy-grinning boy with the innocence of a puppy could be just what she needed to take her mind off of Chloe. She really needed to stop thinking of her best friend in the way that was crossing all the lines. But would Chloe approve of this Jesse boy? What if-

"Earth to Beca!"

She was rattled out of the many thoughts that were tumbling over one another.

"Oh yeah. Yes. A movie, that sounds great."

"Great! I was beginning to think that you were going to school me like Reed! So I'll pick you up at eight, then?"

"Eight sounds good. Here," she handed him a scrap of paper with the address of the Bellas house scrawled on it. "See you then."

"I'll be there for youuuu," he sang the _Friends_ theme, walking away with a noticeable jaunt in his step. Beca shook her head, standing in the same spot watching him go. What had she done?

 **Looks like we're just going to have to sweat this one out, but not for long because it's double update day again!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Let's continue this rollercoaster ride, shall we? And don't forget to sign this because who wouldn't like to see Bechloe for real on the big screen? On iPeition at /petition/turn-bechloe-canon**

The rest of the day was unfortunately a blur and by the time Beca knew it, the time was seven something o'clock and Jesse Swanson would be there any minute to pick her up. For the millionth time that month, Beca wished that things would slow down. Usually it was wanting more time to stay with her friends, to try to absorb as much of the college experience as she could to make up for lost time from her hesitant first year at BU. But today there was a fear-aspect to it: a date.

Yupp, immediately after agreeing to the date with Jesse the alarm bells rang F5 tornado style. What had she done? She knows nothing about dating, or boys, or how to be a good girl. Did she even need to be a good girl? What the hell was she supposed to wear? Which earpiece? What color lipstick? Or was lipstick too forward? What movie were they seeing? Would he try to make a physical move on her?

Beca never knew that a boy could get her in full-on panic mode. She decided that she wasn't fit to go to her next class so she opted for going home early. The house of the Bellas was silent except for Lily, so… still silent. She found the other girl in the kitchen throwing small pieces of a cardboard box into the garbage disposal. Clearing getting rid of some kind of evidence, but there was no time to ask in the midst of panic.

"LilyIjustgotaskedonadatebyarealboywhatthehelldoIdo" she blurted. Lily just blinked quizzically. Beca flopped onto the couch and stared at the ceiling. It had only been ten minutes before Stacie, Cynthia Rose, Fat Amy, and Ashley came bursting into the house. Beca sat up immediately, confused. Before she knew it, she was being hauled off the couch and to the island in the kitchen with glass of wine pushed in front of her.

They looked at her in excited expectation.

"You guys, what." Beca said it like a statement, not a question.

The four girls stared back with a shade of confusion over the excitement. It was then that Beca noticed Lily lurking in the background again, clutching the remainder of the box.

"Lily what the fuck!" She put two and two together and figured out that the thin Asian girl had texted the Bellas group chat. The "Beca's getting married." text from Lily confirmed her suspicion.

"Oh my gosh will you flipping spill it already?!" Stacie shouted.

"Okay first of all, Lily's an aca-liar. I'm not getting married."

Fat Amy seemed to deflate a little. "But I already tied tin cans onto the bumper of your car."

"I… will deal with that later, I guess."

"So what's really going on then?" Ashley asked.

"Well… I seem to have gotten a date. For tonight. With a boy."

"Wow, a real-live boy? I thought you meant Pinocchio," Fat Amy said sarcastically.

"Once, I met a boy who was like Pinocchio. Every time he lied, his shaft got longer and longer until he died," Lily whispered from her place by the sink. The five girls furrowed their brows trying to tell if she really just said that.

"Um… Yeah so my date's tonight. With Jesse Swanson. The Treble?"

"Ooh, you know Aubrey's not gonna like that." 

"Doesn't matter much to me. I just need to figure out what to do in the meantime."

"Well first, have a glass of this, you'll settle down," Cynthia Rose gestured to the wine.

"Then we'll give you the crash-course in all things arousing," Stacie said seductively while leaning over to unbutton the first button on her shirt.

"Stacie do you always have to be such a prostitute? Don't worry Beca, I'll give you some of my confidence first," Fat Amy swiped under her arm before stroking the small girl who was looking more panicked by the minute.

Just then, Aubrey threw open the door to the house with Chloe in tow and strode toward the small-framed girl.

"Back off aca-bitches, Femme Bot and Red are in the house," Cynthia Rose hooted.

"Beca Mitchell. How dare you get married without telling anyone, you aca-bitch? We had to find out through Lily _in a fucking group chat_?"

Chloe patted the blonde's shoulders for calming effect.

"What's going on, Becs?"

"I have a date tonight with Jesse Swanson. You know, the Treblemaker? It all happened so fast, I don't know-"

"THE TREBLEMAKER?!" Aubrey screeched. Chloe firmly pressed her hands onto the blonde now, keeping her from lunging over the counter at Beca.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Chloe said, trying to mask the obvious hurt in her eyes with a smile in front of all the girls.

"It literally just happened thirty minutes ago. I don't know how to prepare for it, much less brainstorm a way to market the event to you guys. And clearly with _that_ reaction," she gestured toward the fuming Aubrey, "nothing that I would have thought of could help."

"Well we need to whip you into shape for this shit then, we're wasting time!" Ashley said, her voice rising with the urgency.

For the second time that day, Beca was hauled against her will by Bellas. It was better this time now that she had a glass of alcohol to dull her panic and dispel the worry caused by Chloe's reaction. Chloe had looked so… Disappointed, even a little bit offended by the news. Was Beca mistaken, or did it seem like the redhead's eyes seemed to say "But I thought you were mine?" There was an element of defeat to her demeanor.

Over the course of the next three hours, Beca completed the last one percent of the lifelong course titled Becoming a Woman. This was the real shit, the nitty gritty: how to apply makeup beyond black eyeliner and mascara, the appropriate skirt to shirt length ratio, even a simulated how-to-react-to-a-subtle-holding-hands request acted out by Jessica and Ashley. It was all truly exhausting.

So now here she was finally alone, sitting in front of her mirror with a Manhattan on the rocks in one hand (which Cynthia Rose poured for her, saying that now was the time to man up after so much white girl shit). It was akin to a bride on her wedding day, the last minutes before the walk down the aisle meant for clarity. She badly wanted to complete that she had been working on since last week's dream about Chloe, but there was no way that she would be able to make a non-garbage edition to the track. She could barely function, much less fumble around with the precise equipment to channel her muse.

And speak of the devil, the door opened and Chloe walked in. She had been present during the teaching too, but this time the girls were alone. She settled on Fat Amy's bed across the room facing her friend. The girls looked at each other without saying anything. Chloe couldn't seem to make up her mind and stood up after less than a minute, crossing the room to stand behind Beca and look at her reflection in the mirror.

"You look beautiful, Beca."

"Thanks, Chlo. You helped save me once again."

"I'm here for you anytime. You can come to me with any problem that you ever have, or if there's ever anything on your mind that you want to talk about."

 _Sure. I'm sure she'd just love to hear your dirty little thoughts of her._

There was so much on her mind right now that was on the brink of coming out. She could spill it right now if she wanted to. But that's probably not the type of thing Chloe meant when she said that. Beca looked into her glass for an answer of how to reply, but found none.

"You know that, right Becs?"

"Yeah. I do know that, Chloe." In an uncharacteristic impulse she put a hand on top of Chloe's which was resting on her shoulder.

The girls went back in silence for a couple minutes. The silence was not as comfortable as it usually was, and Beca felt the pressure to speak even though she didn't know what to say. She felt as if she should justify her actions in some way. Chloe looked like she wanted to say something too. The taller girl was biting her lip, the usual soft expression had more tension in it than normal.

As Beca was debating on how to address the situation, the doorbell rang. Chloe pulled her hand out from under Beca's quickly causing Beca to jump. She downed the rest of her glass, which Chloe removed from her hand and thrust a pack of Wrigley's Spearmint into it instead.

"Quick chew on this, drunkie."

"I'm not drunk, silly. I just have a nice buzz so that I don't sound like a moron."

"Yeah, well. You don't want to smell like bourbon for your Prince Charming, do you?"

There was an uncomfortable exaggeration on the Prince Charming part, giving way to something negative. It couldn't be jealousy, could it? There was no time to think though, as Beca grabbed her clutch and down the stairs. Some of the Bellas had gathered around Jesse and were cooing eager observations at him. Stacie seemed most eager of all, leaning forward and straightening his tie/giving him a look at her cleavage. Cynthia Rose rolled her eyes, while Lily was… sneaking Jesse's wallet back into his pocket?!

When Jesse caught sight of Beca, the breath left his lungs. He looked at her in adoration, even though she was dressed in simple studded flats, a pencil skirt, and a sleeveless peach buttonup, all accentuated with smokey eye makeup. It was more feminine than what she was used to wearing, but still uniquely DJ Beca Mitchell as well.

"Hey… Dude," Beca smiled her trademark lopsided smile,

"Beca, you look great! Regal Cinemas won't know what hit 'em."

"Now you just wait a minute, you," Aubrey stepped in. This time, Chloe was nowhere to be found to hold her friend back. "You better have her home by midnight. It's April 18th, and if it is April 19th when you get her back, you'll have hell to pay."

"Blondie's right. I'll probably sit on you as punishment," Fat Amy chimed in.

"If you harm a hair on her head, I'll end you, Jesse Swanson."

"Oh...kay. Midnight. Got it," he mock surrendered before offering his arm to Beca. "Shall we, madam?"

"Yes… Sir."

They loaded up in Jesse's silver Prius, past Beca's tin-canned car. As they pulled away from the curb she could have sworn she was Chloe's red hair behind the pane of the window, watching them roll away.


	7. Chapter 7

**I suppose I've kept you waiting long enough for an update. Sorry, I was away on vacation but you were all still on my mind! Thanks for bearing with me.**

It was uncomfortable at best. There were many abrupt silences that outnumbered the instances of normal conversation, the non-awkward interactions few and far between. When one would find nothing more to say, they both racked their brains for something to overpower the silence, blurting out whatever they could at the same time, reverting to the "you go," "no you go," method that was about as smooth as a pogo stick on a potholed road. This happened during the car ride to the restaurant, during the dinner itself, driving to the theater, and up until the moment the lights went down for the movie. For the first time that night, Beca sighed in relief for finally receiving an excuse to be silent as the movie started to play. She normally disliked movies, but she was hoping this one would be as long as _Titanic_ for optimum no-talk pressure. Jesse was terribly nervous because he wanted to impress "his girl," where Beca was just terrible at one-on-one social situations in general. This was not an equation for a good first date.

The setup was practically a blind date, after all. Beca frequently wondered why he had selected her, out of all BU girls, and sweet Georgia peaches that he could choose , from what she could draw, was a nice boy. The good ol' boy-next-door type that did what his parents asked, never got in trouble. Had good grades, goals that he was supported in, a pretty much worry-free life. A classic rich boy, but without the asshole aspects. He was silly in a way that made her feel bad, apparent in his over-excitement for the movie and his sense of humor. She could tell because Jesse he was unfalteringly upbeat, outstandingly positive, and not easily deterred.

 _Sounds just like someone else you know, doesn't it?_

The boy probably didn't even realize she had agreed to the date out of pity and the ulterior motive of getting her mind off of other people.

 _Don't you feel like a jerk, using him as a romantic diversion?_

She had to admit, it was admirable how much he wanted a successful night. He may not have been as persistent as Noah was for Allie in The Notebook, there was no life-endangering Ferris wheel stunt, but Jesse was adhering to just as difficult a task by patiently listening to Beca list her favorite colors, clothing stores, what type of dog she wanted to own one day while they made their way home. Previously, the conversations had consisted of small talk and common ground- the weather, upcoming graduation, the ICCAs. But running out of similarities was a scary thing. So she transitioned to listing pithy details about herself to stave off any deeper questions that Jesse might throw at her, and she figured that she could keep him at bay if it all remained surface level for the duration of the ride home.

"And that's why aubergine is my favorite color," she concluded, sitting back in the seat. Perhaps that tidbit would tide them over for a couple of minutes. She didn't know of anything else she could have talked about otherwise.

He chuckled instead, no such luck on purchasing silence. "That's interesting. I would have just called it eggplant and been done with it."

"Actually, did you know that eggplant was first named as a color exactly one century ago to this year?"

"No I did not, Ms. Mitchell. You continue to impress me with your varied knowledge of culture, history, and the arts," he said while nodding his head and raising a cheesy imaginary toast to her.

She pretended to "drop the mic" in return, then looked casually out the window as she watched the streetlights passing overhead.

 _Maybe now he'll stop talking. For once, your useless factoids might have worked._

She was jarred out of her expectation of silence again."I can't believe we haven't talked about it yet!"

"It? What?"

"When you dropped the mic just now, it reminded me of hearing you on the radio!"

She scoffed. "You say 'on the radio' like it is a well-known station. It's just the BU broadcast."

"Who cares! I love your mixes."

For the first time on the date, she actually felt a shred of something happy, a sense of value that applied specifically to her personality.

"Yeah! That's that shit I _do_ like. You really know how to get a party poppin.'"

"Thanks, Swanson. You know, I'm actually trying to be a professional sound engineer/ DJ. My ultimate dream is to move to Los Angeles and produce out there for a record label. Even if I'm only laying down the back tracks, I gotta start somewhere. I think it's what I'm meant to do in life," she said, excited passion seeping into her voice like it always did when she discussed her love of music.

He laughed. Hard. Too hard, actually.

"…What are you laughing at?"

His face was turning red with the laughter. "Oh, just the thought of someone actually trying to do a hobby for a professional career."

"Um… What?"

"Like DJ'ing! Are you trying to tell me that you want to be like P. Diddy?"

 _Here we go. You tried to avoid the deep talk, but you didn't see this shit coming, did you Mitchell?_

He was being serious. The moron next to her was being serious. Everyone in Beca's life knew that music was central to her identity, that her life dream of mixing professionally was one of the only beacons of hope that saw her through the dark times in her past.

"No. Not like P. Diddy. I want to be me, Beca Mitchell. I can't believe you would say something like that."

"What?"

"Why do you think I work so hard at the station, make so many mixes? Why do you think I have an internship at a real production company? A real production company, might I add, _that employs real-live adults_. Who do the same thing that I want to do for a living." Her sentences were fragmented as she squeezed them out from between clenched teeth. "How dare you even say something like that to me?"

He held up his hands in mock surrender -one trick pony- and tried to brush it off. He was beginning to realize he made a big mistake.

"I didn't mean to offend you. I just think that you have so much more going on in your head than what DJ'ing could do for you."

 _You bet I have more going on in my head. And it has to do with Chloe, not with you._

"What the actual hell is wrong with you? You know, up until this moment, I thought you were okay. I tolerated you and your sweater vest and bowtie combo for the last three and a half hours, put up with your incessant listing of 'director's cut facts' during the movie, and heck I even started to like you a little bit. You almost had me fooled into thinking you were a good guy, but really you're just close-minded and selfish. I tried to ignore those little selfish details of yours, but why should I? Don't you think I noticed how you didn't tip the waiter, or how you carelessly left your popcorn bag on the floor of the movie theater when we left? And now you're insulting my dreams and my being. I don't have any place for people like you in my life. Stop the car."

"Wha- Becs. Wait. You can't be like that."

"Don't you call me Becs. Goodbye, Jesse." Beca stepped out of the car, slamming the door and strutting off in the opposite direction. Jesse's Prius idled on the curb, a distance widening between the two with every empowered step she took. They were almost a mile off of campus and she needed to walk back to the Bellas house. It was a potentially dangerous setting for a small 5'4" college girl like herself to be in as it was dark and nearly midnight, but no one would dare cross the path of this scorned woman now.

 _What an a-hole. You really almost started to like him?_

She had, actually. Beca told herself that it would be good to focus on someone else other than the redhead that had been bouncing around her mind for the last week, and Jesse was just the opportunity she needed for that. She had tried with him, genuinely made an attempt to be more appealing, forcing herself to keep her snarky comments to herself during the date, stifling the off-putting parts of her personality when she wasn't being too awkward (the awkwardness came naturally, after all, there was no pretending there). But it was as if Jesse was playing Barbie and Ken, trying to make them go on a pretty little plastic date under his picture perfect standards. But Beca was never one to be sorted into a category neatly because she was always in the space between. Like the odd shape in the crossover of a Venn Diagram, the bit that made the colors blend. Why had she tried to fit neatly for him, be anything other than herself?

Beca reached up to let down the quaint bun that she had worn for the date, shaking out her brunette locks and throwing them over her shoulder. Shania Twain's "Man, I Feel Like a Woman" would have been an accurate audio track, had this been a movie. She smiled to herself, feeling a release of pressure.

With every step, Beca gained traction in knowing what her next action had to be. After the awkward and frustrating night with a boy she had been insulted by, she could see clearly now that it was all building up to this. Accepting the date was the mechanism she used to deny her feelings for Chloe. She thought that if she could use the boy to take her mind off of her, give him a chance, maybe her feelings for her friend would disappear. All day she had deep-down regretted agreeing to the date because it put distance between her and the older girl. But now she could see that that's what she needed to give her the push. Jesse was the energy used to rip the cord of the lawnmower to get it all started, and now she was ready to roar.

For once, the voice in her head wasn't self-deprecating. Her feet had carried her back to the white-trimmed beige Bellas' house, and her mind was on board with her bodily actions.

 _It's time to go get who you want._


	8. Chapter 8

**Chloe's POV**

Here she was again. Lying and staring at the speckled ceiling, pondering the demise of another thing she loved. It was easy to wallow when it seemed all the aspects of your life were ganging up against you, dauntingly insurmountable; but it was another thing entirely when the subject of your disappointment was a person. Someone with a face and a personality that you truly could pin the disappointment to, no way around it.

As much as Chloe wanted Beca and didn't want her to go on a date with stupid Jesse Swanson, she couldn't hate either of them for it. Jesse clearly did not have her good favor, and she oddly felt like a father who hadn't been asked for his blessing on a marriage and had his child elope or something. Obviously the boy didn't deserve Beca- he was not only a Treblemaker, but he seemed somewhat shallow. Sure, Chloe shared the similarity of coming from families with sizeable incomes and comfortable upper-middle class living and she understood his way of life, but she got the vibe that he was used to getting what he wanted. He seemed more coddled than her somehow. She could picture it now- Jesse and Beca dating for a few months (if it even lasted that long, hopefully not), him giving her tons of attention at first, then gradually losing interest and treating her with less and less attention until she was lost.

It was easy to lose Beca- she had not-so-subtle abandonment issues and it was hard to build her trust. But once you had it, you needed to keep her feeling valued. Chloe knew this, and it was easy for her to support Beca. She was great at seeing things like this and even better at fulfilling others' needs. She was a people person and was always willing to give herself to everyone she met. But Jesse Swanson wasn't like that, deducted from her admittedly limited interactions with him, and it was a train waiting to crash. The redhead couldn't let him derail Beca- not before graduation and the start of real life.

She punched her pillow in frustration, rolling over until she was face down and muffled her groan into it. What was she really supposed to do? Say "Beca I love you and that's why you can't be with Jesse?" "Beca I'm best for you so stop seeing him?" "I don't want to share you with anyone else, my little DJ?" No, Beca would be appalled. She was dense and had no idea of Chloe's feelings, let alone the depth of them. The small brunette also despised any semblance of authority, and if Chloe were to exercise some sort of effort to control who she was dating it would not turn out well.

So that was it, then. With just over two weeks until graduation, there was nowhere else to go. She had lost her last chance for any spark to ignite with Beca. Chloe felt as if she was down to her bottom dollar and her wallet had just been stolen. And the thief was the damn goofy-dog Jesse, all unassuming in his innocence and trivial movie knowledge. It wasn't fair. She had worked so hard for years to get this close to Beca. So many rehearsals, pep talks, almost-dates, trinkets of indicative affection, so many infinite thoughts aching to have Beca, to really have her. To fall asleep with the girl in her arms and wake up to the first sight of her eyes when her own opened.

All of that was torn down now, leveled with equivalent caution of a wrecking ball at a demolition. She couldn't even bring herself to hope that their first date was awful- Chloe was not spiteful enough for that, her claws not sharp enough for that frame. She couldn't stand the thought of her girl being hurt. It took a long time for Beca to heal, she was the type who never forgot who wronged her, and every bit of pain was one that lasted. If Beca were hurt in some way tonight, she wouldn't heal by graduation. She was delicate, easily overlooked by her castle of defenses. High walls protect the fragility of feeling.

The despair was getting to be too much for her. No one knew her internal battle, and the things that usually comforted her were unresponsive. The Egyptian cotton sheets were indifferent, the dusky sunset swallowing itself in melancholy, even the teddy bear perched on the corner of her bedsheet stared back at her as if to challenge her, "You should be smiling like me." The 25-year-old kicked her feet over the side of the bed and made her way downstairs to some wine who would surely coax her into feeling better.

She sat down at one of the barstools at the island after pouring a generous glass. Hours earlier all of the Bellas had surrounded Beca here as Chloe's world came tumbling down upon realizing the situation. _Why didn't you tell me?_ Chloe's own words echoed and she cringed at how childlike it made her sound. Small and hurt.

Beca had caught on she thought because she had held her gaze for a beat longer than everyone else. Perhaps she sensed the hurt, even though she was typically dense and in denial of complex emotion. But still, she had looked like she wanted to bring it up later when they were both in her room alone. Beca put her hand on Chloe's, a gesture that was rarer than a blue moon even in their friendship and had looked at her through the mirror. It was like she was inches away from saying something important, and Chloe's heart had hammered in her ears in the anticipation of it all. But of course, nothing was said.

She rose to pour herself another glass when Aubrey entered the kitchen.

"Take it easy there, Chlo," she said softly, noticing the bottle in her friend's hand and the already-glazed look on her face.

"What? It's a Friday night in, I'm just trying to enjoy myself."

"Enjoy yourself? You could have fooled me, it looks like you're trying to self-medicate."

Chloe opened her mouth and closed it, furrowing her brow. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh come on. You don't think I know?"

Chloe played dumb. "Know what? I'm just stressed a lot lately. We're graduating, after all. Lots to do, got to get 'er done," she chuckled weakly.

Aubrey neared closer, taking her hand. "I know what this is about, Chloe."

Chloe's eyes were downcast, studying the marbled pattern of the counter. "You can't possibly know."

"But I do, darling. I can see it in the way you look at her, the adoration in your eyes every time you sing together. How she's the first person that your eyes shoot to when sharing a group laugh How upbeat you are when you're around her, gosh knows why because she's such a dark-spirited little weirdo. I've known for a while now."

Chloe blushed. "Why didn't you ever say anything then?"

"I didn't want to embarrass you. I figured there was a reason if you didn't tell me."

"How long have you known?"

"Almost as long as you've had feelings for her."

"Wow. Yikes."

"Don't worry about it. Your secret's safe with me. I'm not sure if any of the other Bellas have caught on though. Sometimes it seems like they might have by the way they giggle at you showing Beca dance moves at close proximity, but they always blow everything out of proportion."

"That's true. I always thought there were no secrets within the Bellas, but I guess I was the one keeping the biggest one."

"Well, that and Amy has been hooking up with Bumper Allen for a while…"

"WHAT?! What do you mean?!"

"Well, when a man really likes a woman, you see, their parts start to-"

"-I understand how hooking up works, thank you Ms. Sexual Education teacher."

Aubrey laughed and gave Chloe's hand a squeeze. "In all seriousness though, I think you need to tell Beca how you feel." 

"I think that would take the rest of this bottle to happen," Chloe gestured to the wine.

"Shut up. You know as well as I do that time is running out before we all go out into the world, most of us our separate way with our dreams in different universes."

"I know, Aubs. But this wouldn't even be a problem if she hadn't gone on that date tonight."

"Stupid Jesse Swanson, I know. Once a Treblemaker, always a Treblemaker. But in the grand scheme of life, think about it. It's just been one date with one mediocre college boy. There's still hope yet. You don't want to live the rest of your life wondering what could have been."

The redhead sighed. "I think you might be right."

"I'm always right. Are you just now realizing that?"

Chloe slapped her hand away playfully but then pulled her into a hug. "Thanks for always steering me in the right direction. I love you, girl."

As much as the other Bellas and general world thought that Aubrey was a robot, she actually had quite the soft and understanding side. She gave just the right confidence boost to Chloe. It was nearly midnight now, so she decided to call it a night and change into an oversized tee and short shorts to settle into bed. When would the time be right to confess her feelings to Beca, and how exactly would she say it? These questions mulled around in her mind and carried her to the drifting off point. In her fading consciousness she swore she had heard her door quietly click open.

 **It's all leading up, can you handle the pressure? Haha. Please leave reviews for me telling me what you'd like to see. Love you all, xo.**


	9. Chapter 9

It was as if she were on fire, a bright inferno. She had ignited and there was no other way that she could douse her own flames than to get her feelings out into the open. Her feet danced as if on hot embers through the door, up the stairs, and down the hallway to Chloe's room.

She twisted the doorknob slowly, and the latch popped like an awry spark. In the bed before her was a sleeping form, silver moonlight stretching over her face against the shrouds of shadow in the rest of the room. She stood before Chloe and opted to tap her on the shoulder, but paused with her hand midair. Thinking better of it, she eased herself onto the bed -no turning back now- and watched her peaceful face register the weight unconsciously before her eyes opened. They widened slightly before a content smile played across her mouth, oh those lips.

"Hey Becs." 

Beca's heart positively hammered at the words- this really was happening now. Where the hell had her fiery confidence gone? It was there the whole walk home but now it had abandoned her. She seemed unable to move, frozen at the last step of the marathon before crossing the line. The clock still ran, she could beat that PR if she could move her sneaker one more foot. Barely conscious Chloe snuggled into Beca, unaware of the terror that was brewing inside of her friend.

"Mmm, cuddle with me," she requested in her sultry sleep voice. The younger girl hated cuddling but Chloe was the exception. Quite frankly, she'd drop everything to cuddle with Chloe, although she'd never admit it.

So she obliged, still silent, curling up as the smaller spoon and trying not to let her body be rigid. She pushed her face into the comforter, holding her breath and silently cursing herself for giving upon her mission so easily.

 _This isn't what you're here for, dummy._

But it felt so good, feeling the other girl's body heat seep into her. Beca counted to ten for courage, she'd make her move then. Then to ten again. Then one hundred. She ground her teeth, her eyes open in the darkness as Chloe's breath started to even out in the throes of sleep once again. The numbers on the clock kept marching on.

 _You have to. You need to do this. Or forever hold your peace…_

Knowing full-well that their friendship was at stake, precious as it was, it was no match for a lifetime of wondering what could have been. Or worse, living without her beautiful redhead.

She sat bolt upright, jostling Chloe awake in the process. She remained faced away from her.

"I can't take it anymore. I can't."

"Beca? What's wrong?"

She winced at the concern in her friend's voice, confusion, fear and pre-pain edging into it.

"I can't pretend like everything is all right. I can't be friends with you anymore."

"You… You don't want to be friends with me anymore? Was this because I didn't ask about your date? I forgot to, really I did, but I hardly think that is cause to cease our friendship." She sat up, Beca's back still to her.

 _You don't deserve someone as good as her._

" _Yes I do,"_ she said aloud.

"You do what?"

"The date was the best thing in the world, actually, it was exactly what I needed. But it made me realize that I can't be friends with you anymore..." She felt the bed depress a little, Chloe must have slumped her shoulders in response. It was just the response that told her she was making the right move.

She manned up and faced the older girl. "...because it made me realize that he's not who I want. That's not where I want to be, and I can't even jade myself into thinking that's where I'm meant to be. I don't want him because he's not you. I want you. And I can't just be friends because I need to be more than that with you. I've never felt anything stronger in the entirety of my life, Chloe Beale. I'm sorry if that's not what you want, or if I'm not who you want. I get it. But I couldn't let us graduate without saying it. I didn't realize it until that night on the quad, but I've loved you all along. Ever since then, you're the only thing on my mind. You made me love in a way I didn't think was possible, and it's so strong I can't believe that I ever had a life without you. I can't ignore it. I love you and I want to say it over and over again to you, whispering it, singing it, shouting it. Please believe me when I say you're the only one that I'll ever want."

Chloe's eyes were glistening now, unaware of when the first tear fell even though she had been locked into those blue orbs the whole time.

"Hey," Beca said softly, hesitantly wiping the tear away with her thumb, caressing the soft skin of her cheek with such tenderness that it surprised Chloe. She still made no attempt at words and Beca's swollen heart began to descend into a bottomless depth of disappointment. There it was. She had laid it all on the line and spoken in the highest absolutes that there were, and there was no way to play it off like a joke or take it back, even if she wanted to. Still sinking, Beca's eyes closed as she brought her lips with painstaking slowness up to Chloe's forehead, brushing away a ginger lock with her nose before pressing a kiss there. "I'm sorry."

Sensing her next action, Chloe snapped out of it and grabbed both of Beca's hands before she could make the move to rise. Beca was queen in the kingdom of running away, but not this time. That's not how this would end.

Her eyes opened in response at Chloe's urgent contact, conflicted hope apparent there.

"I'm not letting you go, Beca."

"But… Why?" Beca hoped with every last fiber in her being that Chloe would somehow reciprocate her feelings.

 _Please don't let this be for nothing. I could never show my face to you again._

"You don't need to worry. Because I've loved you all along, Beca Mitchell. I can't believe that you don't see that even now, I can tell by the look on your face that you didn't know..." The years of friendship had all crescendoed to this moment, perfectly orchestrated.

"...I've loved you since the day I met you. Every action in my life is guided to you somehow. Whether it's to spend time with you, or to please you, or to make sure I'm in your thoughts. When I'm with you, you make me feel like I can do anything. Stress dissipates, the world altogether disappears, and my worries are dissolved. I've never met anyone who made me feel like that, until there was you. I love you more than life itself."

For a girl who was as big as life itself, that was a monumental statement. And to her delight, it was one punctuated with a kiss. Neither girl knew who initiated it, but it was as if the emotions pouring out of both of them couldn't resist each other any longer, making the choice for them. The girls were just along for the ride.

It was a glorious ride. Their bodies drifted together and all the distances closed while their souls opened. Chloe's soft pink lips met Beca's, warm and loving. Absent of lust but full of love, love, love. Beca was sure that if she put together all the love she had felt in her entire life, it would pale in comparison to the love that Chloe Beale was giving her in this moment. This was her last coherent thought before being completely swept away in the action. There was nothing else her senses could possibly comprehend right now, not that they wanted to be preoccupied with anything else since she had waited so long to indulge in this. All five of her senses were alight with Chloe. Cherry amber body gel smell, petal soft skin of her neck and lips and face, the slow sounds of the kiss unforgettable to her ears. The image of Chloe's sparkling eyes before they disappeared into the kiss was on the forefront of her mind, fading under the delectable taste of her mouth.

The older woman's nose pushed slightly into her face as she gained a better angle to deepen the kiss. So much passion, identical fire. This was what reality tasted like. This was what it felt like to be kissed. There had never been anything else but this. So much tenderness and joy. Beca didn't even know those feelings could be associated with something as simple as a lock of the lips, but this was a whole new definition. This felt even better than the utopian dream she had a week ago, but this time she was more than present to enjoy the moment because all of the confusions had been dispelled.

Nothing could ruin this, literally nothing. If the entire world was collapsing within itself and the sky was falling, then at least they could go out on a high note doing the best thing possible.

The abstract thought of losing Chloe hit a different chord though, and the older woman noticed a distraction from her partner after a few minutes of making out.

"Hey. Hey what's wrong love?"

Beca ducked her head, looking at Chloe through her lashes with doe eyes. "It's… It's just that this is perfect. Too perfect. I'm already thinking that this is so amazing that it can't possibly end this well. Graduation is happening soon, and we'll only have summer to figure out what we're going to do. I'm throwing all of myself at you, and while I'm not much, I can't bear the thought of losing you in any way. Because if I lose you, I lose me too." Beca buried her face in the curve of Chloe's neck.

This made Chloe groan in frustration. "There's nothing that's going to separate us now. We took too damn long to get together, and there was so much time lost when we could have been with each other. I promise that I will give you all of my love and nothing can change that. So let's enjoy 'the now' while we have it, okay?" She pressed a kiss into her hair.

Beca hummed in reply, the vibrations reverberating through the redhead's neck, arousing her. Only Beca could get her turned on with something as ordinary as that, and she tried to conceal the thought so as not to ruin the moment. It seemed rude to rush anything more after such a touching profession of love, especially from someone so typically out of touch with their emotions. But Chloe's shaky exhale couldn't be hid from the younger girl in such close proximity, and she could feel Beca smile into the skin of her neck before placing a lingering kiss there, and another.

Beca pulled back a moment, making sure it was okay to continue.

"I've been waiting for this too, you don't need to ask for permission. You've had it since I met you."

Her smile disappeared when Beca's hand tangled in her ginger locks, easing her fully onto her back, hovering above before gently putting her weight into the straddle. She nuzzled across her collarbone before nipping it, her sucking on the spot quickly with hot breath to aid the sensation. Chloe couldn't contain the moan that escaped, and Beca swore she had never heard a better sound. It was melodic in a way and positively full of feeling, rivaling only the way she sang.

With an element of passion translating from verbal to physical, Chloe pulled Beca's mouth back to her own before sliding her hands down the length of her body, settling firmly on her waist . Beca responded by grinding down into her. The friction was electrifying and only urged her on further. The height difference made it a little difficult to rock her hips into her co-captain's and kiss her at the same time, but she could more than make do.

The taller woman was the first to make a move to shed clothing. Beca's whole body was gaining heat, feverish fire that could only be sated by Chloe's touch. Chloe's nimble fingers make quick work of the many buttons on the blouse that she had been wearing -funny because Jesse probably thought he would be the one unbuttoning it tonight- but got caught on the last button. Beca exasperatedly tore the two sides apart, the button flying off into oblivion, not worth the wait. Chloe pulled her closer, gaining as much traction on the revealed skin as possible. The older woman rid her counterpart of the bra by sliding the younger woman's arched back and bare shoulder out while she took the other's shirt off. It felt like an eternity passed in the time that it took to remove the useless clothing.

Luckily Chloe's bra unclasped in front, and Beca slowly remove the barrier. She pulled back to admire Chloe's body, finally before her for the taking. It was more beautiful than she imagined, surpassing yet another expectation. Her fair skin was flawless, her upper body symmetrical, her stomach wonderfully toned. Her hands were drawn like moths to irresistible to Chloe's breasts, kneading gently and matching the rhythm of their hips. Fantastic friction, Chloe's moans an even better audio track. (If only she could make a mix out of what she was feeling and hearing right now, that track would fly off the shelves and be a number one best seller.) Her mouth kissed an open trail to one of the 34 C's and she threw all of her focus into the southbound journey.

For never being with a girl before, or anyone really, she more than got Chloe through the night. Chloe, the selfless person that she was, generously compensated Beca in return, again and again. It was a togetherness that both enjoyed every minute of, not a chore to get each other to the ecstatic heights.

 _This is what it's like to be loved_ , Beca thought to herself for the thousandth time in the last few hours.

For once, they didn't fall asleep in separate beds wishing the others' arms were around them. It wasn't the last warm thought before drifting off alone to dreamland, this time they were together. It was a wonderful reality, enveloped in Egyptian cotton sheets and the first light of morning seeping into the sky, investing their bare skin body heat in one another.

 **There's still another chapter where the rest of the ends will be tied. Don't worry, the ride's not over yet, my friends! There will be more juicy stuff next chapter as well. Thanks for sticking with me thus far.**


	10. Chapter 10

It was late. So late that the rest of the campus was asleep, and Beca had the world to herself once again. But this time, she didn't have sole ownership of the night because she had someone to share it with. There was no descent into despair, no time spent stewing in agony alone. She had Chloe now.

It was the eve of graduation. Technically, it was a few hours after midnight, but Beca never considered a day new until the light of the sun graced it. So it felt like they were graduating tomorrow instead of in fourteen measly hours. Shake with the right and receive a diploma with the left; just fourteen hours. Put on their dresses under their gowns in even less time than that. Start on one end of the stage as college kids, walk off the end as graduates. Move the tassel from one hemisphere of the head to the other, student to full-blown career-pursuing adults. Just fourteen hours.

"The future is now. We're knocking on the door, Chlo," Beca murmured into Chloe's hair.

Neither of the girls had been able to sleep of course, not with their futures hanging above them like a heavy cloud cover about to give way to rain. The winds of change had ushered in new timelines and new definitions for their lives. They had gone from living day to day in the college fashion: rehearsal at five, study the next chapter, test on Tuesday, laundry on Thursday, party next week, etc. But now time was about to be endless and unbroken, because it was saying "career" instead of "class." No more summer vacation, no breaks. The ladders always had higher steps, promotions really meant something now. Not "you'll be the captain by the end of the year for next year," but now it was the real shit, the "work hard for ten years and maybe you'll get a raise." This was a more fragile reality that there was no way around, and here it was knocking on their door. Student loans to pay off, vital bills, transportation time beyond walking across campus, homes that weren't university housing, jobs, families, kids.

"It's like we're waking from a dream," Chloe mulled.

They wondered why they had ever wanted to grow up and rush towards adulthood. It's funny how childhood is scrutinized around graduation, as everyone traces their beginnings to their current successes, and almost all curse themselves for not valuing their time as well as they should have. But not Chloe Beale. She was the one person out of the entire class of 2015 that arguably over-valued her time, buying three extra years of it. She was like a Doomsday prepper buying extra cases of Spam- holding onto it because it was her lifeblood, needing the memories for future fuel. In retrospect, it was kind of funny that it took her this long to get ready, but she had touched so many more lives around her in the process of getting her own together.

"Hey, let's go for a walk." Chloe was already rising from the bed, out of Beca's arms. Beca looked immediately indignant because the redhead took herself away. They had been so comfortable in bed together, content and warm and she missed the contact instantly. Besides, she envisioned at least a little sexy time tonight, because they planned on making their last night in college count. But she knew Chloe always obeyed her whims, so it couldn't hurt to see where they ended up tonight. Chloe kept on her pajama shorts but put on a hoodie, and Beca threw a V-neck on over her sports bra. It was the middle of the night, after all, the only thing that would see them would be the streetlights.

Like they had weeks before, the girls crept out the back door of the Bellas' house, the frame groaning in protest to divorce from the backdoor. They never had gotten that fixed. Oh well. The moon provided vague lighting into the gritty alley taking them to campus. Now Beca understood. Chloe wasn't acting on a whim, she was following the chiastic journey. Her heart burned with love at the act of sentiment as they approached the quad.

It was exactly like before. Silent. Dark. Not a soul in sight, but the sky pinholed full of starry witnesses. They laid down together in the center of the grass, not concerned with distance and longing for contact like last time. They were touching as they laid side by side and studied the sky.

"Remember that time on the way to nationals that Fat Amy got hit with Bumper's hail Mary burrito throw?" Chloe said, and Beca laughed instantly at the memory.

"Yeah she was all 'I've been shot!' Haha. Or the time that we threw that party last year and we learned Lily had swaggy beatbox skills better than Donald?"

"Yes! And we were all so blown away. That was such a crazy night. Everyone went so wild. I think that was the most drunk that I've ever been in my life."

"Me too. The next day everyone threw up and even Aubrey didn't want to go to practice so we just cancelled it."

"Augh. That was awful, and we had fall semester finals the next week and everyone was so behind."

"Yeah. So many all-nighters, I swear if there was a way to measure caffeine levels like BACs we would all have tripled the 'legal' limit. But it was all worth it in the end."

"Or how about that time we all went skinny-dipping in the lake, just to cross it off our bucket lists? I tried so hard to get a glimpse of you!"

Beca blushed at the last one. "Hey, we said what happened at the retreat center, stayed at the retreat center. No fair."

"Oh, stop it. You're so silly. It's fine," Chloe said, drawing out the syllables of the last word as she smirked. She knew that Beca was easily embarrassed, and didn't like to discuss matters that involved nudity or anything remotely sexual. Beca was very private about things like that, so Chloe would often make suggestive jokes about their time in bed just to get a rise out of her. Beca was a rookie new to the game, after all, she had her "first time" only ten days ago. When it came down to it, the ginger respected her boundaries with something so personal and knew which lines were okay to cross. She felt honored to be Beca's first, and wished she could have gone back in time to make sure Beca was her first too.

The girls grew quiet as their minds reflected on the years of friendship, including the night they were on the quad like this in the middle of the night. Many of the problems that had been priorities the last time they were here were now solved. Letters of recommendation written, demos dropped, finals aced (or at least, not damaging to GPA, in Beca's case), nationals won. And now there were much larger-scale worries to deal with. But one problem went unsolved- the biggest of all. So big, in fact, that Beca shivered at the thought of it. She pressed herself more firmly into the woman who meant the world to her. Chloe took her attention away from the stars to look her in the face, finding Beca's eyes squeezed shut.

"Beca? Sweetie what's wrong?"

"I'm really trying not to ruin the moment, I promise, I'm trying to take a mental picture of this all. But I'm sorry, because even now there's one thing I just can't ignore."

Chloe knew before she even said it. Because it was the only thing that was truly terrifying about the future to her, too.

"You're my guiding light, Chloe Beale," Beca said, her voice vulnerable in its tenderness. Only for Chloe could she let the soft parts of her heart show.

"That's the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me, Beca."

"You've gotten me through so much, you've made me a better _me._ I'll never be able to thank you for giving my life such meaning. For taking me under your wing. You basically had to start from the ground up, for gosh sakes you put up with so much. I didn't make it easy for you, not realizing I loved you all along and whatnot, but you didn't just break down my walls. You broke down the walls and then took care of what you found behind them. My heart was always in your hands. You were always the light at the end of the tunnel."

Chloe was smiling back at her, through her tears. Her chin was shaking as she tried to keep her emotions from bursting out. Beca was looking at her with tears and with love in her eyes too.

"But I can't handle the thought of being apart from you. I love you more than myself, and I need you more than I need to breathe. When we're in the same room, and you leave, it's like the light has left too. I can't handle being apart from you, and I don't know what I'm going to do when I move to LA. I'm actually considering not going."

A gasp escaped Chloe's lungs, her mouth dropping open. She had expected the confessed worry about a future of separation, but she hadn't expected Beca to say that she was on the verge of abandoning her lifelong dream of moving to California. The small DJ was thinking about discarding her highest dream because of _who_ she loved, valuing it more than _what_ she loved. Chloe could barely comprehend the statement, the implications of boundless love that someone actually had for her. For her.

She snapped out of it, focusing in on Beca's dark eyes. "Well, there's another reason why I brought you here. I have news." Her eyes pinged around the younger girl's face.

"Okay, tell me."

"I was thinking about how much you meant to me, ever since we got together that night you told me that you loved me. I realize that there's no possible way that I could ever leave you. I need you in every way one soul needs another, and it really made me think. There's no life for me without you in it. So I started looking for an opportunity for myself in LA, and I found a hospital willing to hire me as a nurse after two years of training with their on-site program. Beca, I'm going to LA."

Now it was Beca's turn to be shocked. She was completely astounded at the news. She had always known Chloe was a girl full of hope, someone who lived without limits, but she somehow never factored in the kingdom of opportunities that she had earned from academic endeavors. Hell, Chloe was an employer's dream, she was just as amazing on paper as she was in real life. Chloe could have a career anywhere she wanted, and Beca didn't put the pieces together that that meant she could be geographically limitless as well. And LA was on the map.

"You mean… Both of our dreams are still on the table, without sacrificing anything?" She was incredulous.

"Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying, my love. You can DJ, and I can be a nurse, and we can keep living and loving each other with not an inch of distance separating our lives. We can stay together."

The tears spilled onto Beca's cheeks. Her home was no longer just in Chloe's heart, it would now be a tangible space in a place called Los Angeles. Her home was no longer just in the other girl's arms, now they had a city together. Her home was no longer a home that she would need to find her way back to, because it's one she never had to leave again. It proved they could make anywhere their home, as long as they were together. She surged forward and captured Chloe's lips with overwhelming passion. It was readily reciprocated, the world of worry officially disappeared when their lips met.

Together they were going forward. And they would never be lost, because they were each other's guiding lights.

 **Well, there it is my friends. Thanks for finishing out the journey with me, hoped this tenth and final chapter was everything you wanted it to be! The story was inspired by the song "No More Lonely Nights" by Paul McCartney, since one of the lyrics mentions a guiding light. Much love!**


End file.
